Kenneth Burr, author of Taillights on the Road to Healing, will appear at Village Books in Bellingham on Sept. 20. Photo courtesy of Kenneth Burr. Graphic by Bellingham Metro News.
BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Washington author and longtime marriage and family therapist Kenneth Burr will visit Village Books in Bellingham later this month for an event centered around his new memoir, Taillights on the Road to Healing.
The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, at Village Books, 1200 11th St. in Bellingham’s Historic Fairhaven village. The event is currently listed on the official Village Books event page. The press release provided to Bellingham Metro News also lists the Sept. 20 event and 6 p.m. start time.
Burr’s memoir was released by Koehler Books in June and has already received national recognition. Taillights on the Road to Healing was named the 2026 winner in the Spirituality: General category of the International Book Awards. The award is listed in the organization’s official 2026 winners announcement.
In Taillights on the Road to Healing, Burr looks back across decades of his life through an unusual lens: the cars, trucks and road trips that accompanied him through different stages of growing up, relationships, family, faith and his eventual path toward greater self-acceptance.
The memoir deals with difficult experiences from Burr’s younger years, including adolescent sexual abuse, and follows challenges he later faced while trying to understand the relationship between his sexuality, spirituality and personal identity. Burr also writes about falling in love during a period of loss, building a family and how his years in ministry shaped the way he viewed faith and himself.
Cars become a recurring thread throughout the story. A Buick woody, rare 1950s convertibles, sports cars, classic trucks and vans appear alongside family road trips across the United States and Europe. The vehicles are more than automotive nostalgia, representing different periods of Burr’s life and the people and experiences connected to them.
Readers can find additional information about the memoir through Kenneth Burr’s official book page, where Burr describes the book as a story extending beyond cars to address trauma, grief, relationships and the search for a spirituality that made sense in his own life.
The memoir has also drawn attention from reviewers. Seattle Book Review awarded the book four out of five stars, praising Burr’s ability to connect personal growth and memories with the vehicles that accompanied different moments of his life.
Burr has spent more than 25 years working as a licensed marriage and family therapist after previously spending several years in ministry. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Seattle Pacific College, a master’s degree in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and a post-master’s marriage and family therapy certificate from Presbyterian Counseling Services. He is also a former president of the Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.
Taillights on the Road to Healing is not Burr’s first book. He previously wrote Coming Out, Coming Home: Making Room for Gay Spirituality in Therapy, published by Routledge in 2009. The book explored the intersection of sexuality and spirituality and was written in part for therapists, pastors and others working with LGBTQ+ people. More information about the earlier book is available through its official Routledge page.
Burr lives in Edmonds with his wife. The couple has three children and four grandchildren. Outside of his professional work and writing, Burr enjoys camping, hiking, gardening and driving classic cars, an interest that ultimately became a central part of his latest memoir.
The Sept. 20 appearance will give Bellingham-metro-area readers an opportunity to hear directly from Burr about the experiences behind Taillights on the Road to Healing and the years-long journey that eventually became the book. More information about Burr and his work can be found on his official website.
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